How to keep bees for profit/Chapter 1

A HIVE of bees nestling in the grass in
-*- the orchard is neither artistic nor ornamental
in the eyes of most people, and the
sentiment it inspires may even be one of fear.
But when we consider that within its narrow
confines there is housed a teeming population
of over thirty thousand of the busiest
little folk in the world, the feeling changes
from fear to amazement at the wonderful
work that is there going on.

Judging from the size of the population,
we should naturally infer that pandemonium
would reign; and this belief would be strengthened
by the constant bustle and hum that
accompany the bees as they come and go
from their humble home to the fields in quest
of nature's sweets.

Instead of chaos being the order of things,
the very reverse is true; and each denizen of
the hive has its allotted task which it busily
and joyfully performs, and that with clocklike
precision.

The young bees for the first few days of
their existence spend their time in taking care
of their developing brothers and sisters, feeding
the larvae a food made of a mixture of
honey, pollen, water, and a secretion from
the glands of the head and chyle-stomach,
and only varying this task by an occasional
play spell of flying in front of the hive during
the early part of the afternoon. Other bees,
fully matured, are afield in quest of pollen
from the flowers, while others are gathering
propolis, or bee-glue, with which to firmly
fasten the lids and bottom boards of their
homes. Others still are carriers of water,
while the main force of field bees are busily
engaged in sipping from the flowers the nectar
awaiting them.

At the entrance of each hive is a number
of sentinel bees, armed with their sharpened
spears, ready to repel robber bees from strange
hives, or whatever else may threaten to disturb
them. No bee returning from the field
can pass the vigilant sentinels without the
proper countersign, and that countersign is
the distinctive odor of the colony to which it
belongs, for this is the only means of identification
the bees possess; and so powerful
are their organs of sense, that a strange bee
seldom passes by them. These sentinels are
relieved from time to time, but at all times,
during the genial days of spring, summer,
and early fall, the entrance to their little
homes is fully guarded.

With a mother queen to rule them and provide
the offspring to take the place of the old
bees that are constantly dying (for the average
life of a worker bee is only about five weeks),
the work of rearing the young, the building
of comb, and the storing of honey against a
rainy day goes steadily on.

With a knowledge of these facts does not
the aspect of the hive change from a commonplace-
looking box to a veritable kingdom,
presided over by royalty, which challenges our
interest and admiration, and at once inspires
in us the purpose to become the better acquainted
with it?

Another thing we should not overlook and
we are liable to do so if we look at the hive
only from the standpoint of the number of
pounds of honey it is likely to produce is,
that bees bear a close and vital relation to the
matter of fruit production in the neighborhood.
The real mission of the honey bee after
all is not the production of honey, for that is
only incidental, but rather to insure the proper
pollination of our fruit blossoms, and were
it not for their active agency in this department
of agricultural life, the fruit output of
the country would be astonishingly small.
A careful examination of the body of a
worker bee will reveal that nature has clothed
it in a coat of fuzzy down, and as the little
fellow enters the blossom in search for its
hidden sweets, the particles of pollen adhere
to the down, so that as the bee goes from
flower to flower, it unconsciously performs the
work of cross pollination.

It is a remarkable fact that nature gives
the nectar-secreting organs only to those blossoms
whose fruit demands the pollination of
their seeds.

There have been certain sections of the
country, where soil and climatic conditions
were in every respect favorable to fruit production,
yet there was a surprising lack of
fruit, and careful examination has shown that
bees were not present in the neighborhood.
Horticulturists were thus led to import
bees from a distance, with almost immediate
benefit to the orchards. So, if for no other
reason than that of securing a good quantity
and quality of fruit, bees have proved a real
blessing to the farmer and the suburbanite.
The phase of bee-keeping, however, that
most appeals to the average man or woman,
is that of honey production, and in this respect
it is an unusually safe undertaking.

It is surprising how locations, apparently
most unpromising, will often produce a crop
of honey from sources hitherto unsuspected,
and yet it is a fact that the bees by their mar
vellous industry, and long flights of as much
as five miles from home, will year after year
richly reward their owners by a substantial
surplus.

There are possibly not over two hundred
persons of all classes, including many professional
men and women, in the United States
who make bee-keeping a sole means of livelihood,
and though the possibilities of profit
are almost infinite, the majority of people are
contented to keep from two to twenty-five
hives of bees as a side line. Some of the
most successful beekeepers are women, their
deft fingers making them particularly adapted
to the rapid handling of bees, especially in
commercial queen-rearing, of which we shall
speak later on. Smokers with which to subdue
the colonies, veils for the faces, and gloves
for the hands will enable the most timid to
keep bees with perfect safety, and to go through
the entire season without experiencing the
slightest annoyance from stings.

How much honey a single hive of bees will
produce in a single season, and how profitable
bees may become, are questions that are frequently
asked by the prospective beekeeper,
and in answer it may be said that results will
depend upon the flora of the locality, the
amount of care given to the bees, and the conditions
under which they have been wintered.
It is an undisputed fact that bees are the
most profitable of stock that can be kept, as
their keeping involves little outlay beyond
the initial expense of the proper outfit, and a
small amount of time given them.
There is a large number of business men
who have suburban homes, and keep a few
colonies of bees, giving to their care only the
time remaining after they return home late
in the afternoon, or in the early morning
before going to business, yet who have made
a marked profit from the keeping of their
few hives. The writer has had individual
colonies that have given as high as one hundred
and twenty pounds of comb honey each,
which was sold to the neighbors for twenty-five
cents a pound, leaving a net profit of over
$25 a hive; this, however, was exceptional,
though I have known a number of people
who have kept a few hives of bees to average
this and more from every hive.

It should be remembered that when a large
number of hives are kept in a limited territory,
the output per hive will diminish in proportion
to the number of hives kept in the home
yard, as there will be more bees for the blossoms
to support, but where not more than
seventy-five hives are kept in a fairly large
section, there should be little difficulty in reaping
a profit close on to $5 or $6 per hive. Unless
one is located in the buckwheat or alfalfa
section of the country, the better plan would
be not to overstock the home yard, but rather
resort to a system of outyards, placing fifty
to sixty hives of bees in, say, three yards, one
at the home and the others three miles from
the home in opposite directions, all of them
being easy of access. In this way the possession
of, say, one hundred and fifty hives of bees
in the hands of an experienced person should
provide a fair income, especially if the product
is sold in the neighborhood at retail prices.

There is a large number of people who keep
only three or four hives of bees to supply their
own table, and an occasional gift of honey to
a friend, who get great pleasure from keeping
them, and who like to point with pride to the
comb of immaculately white honey on the
table as the product of their busy bees.
When it comes to a production of honey
which runs up into tons, then the placing of the
product comes under the heading of How to
Dispose of the Crop, of which we will speak
in a later chapter.

By all means get some bees, and be sure
that you will never regret it; for the writer,
after fifteen years' experience in the keeping
of bees, is as enthusiastic as when, many years
ago, he became the proud possessor of an oldfashioned
hive, and acquired the "Bee Fever,"
from which he has never recovered, and never
expects to recover.